Greg Kihn pulled brutal joke on Journey's Steve Perry

Greg Kihn is one of my favorite rock stars from the '80s. Not so much for his music (which I do indeed love), but for his refreshing honesty and playful sense of humor. (Click here to listen to our podcast interview with Greg.) Still, it was almost shocking to read that Kihn pulled off a daring practical joke on Journey frontman Steve Perry back in 1981.

"On this date in 1981 the Greg Kihn Band played at Pine Knob Music Center in Michigan with Journey," Kihn writes on his blog. "It was during this gig that my roadies started an ill-advised harrassment of Journey lead singer Steve Perry, switching the names of the cities on his monitors, which embarrassed him on several occasions."

Wow, that's pretty brutal. As a fan, I'd have booed if Perry had yelled out "Hello, Miami" instead of "Hello, Tampa Bay" when I saw Journey on the Escape tour. So why did you do it, Greg?

"Why? I don’t know. Maybe I was jealous. After all, Journey was the number one band in America that year and what were we? Number three hundred and ten?... Steve, it’s been 30 years and I’m sorry, man. I really am. I just want to take this opportunity to formally appologize to you."

About this blog

Relive the '80s music, movies and culture with Tampa Bay Times correspondent Steve Spears. A teen during the greatest decade ever, Steve is obsessed with everything from Duran Duran to Journey, John Hughes to John Cusack, and parachute pants to big hair.